What is Healing Energy?
Part 3
Silent Pulses

James L. Oschman

Introduction

of atoms and subatomic particles, vibrating trillions of times per second.

Life is immersed in this spectrum, and contributes its own unique set ofrhythms. One long cycle is that between birth and death. Superimposed uponthat rhythm are many cycles of replacement of the atoms comprising the body(Schoenheimer 1942). Some tissues, such as bone and fascia, are completelyreplaced some 10­15 times during a lifetime, while others, such as skin andintestine, are replaced 10 000 times during the same period. Certainenzymes last only a few seconds before they are renewed (Ratner 1979). Eachorgan has its own set of activity rhythms, such as the ovary, with itsmonthly cycle. Shorter yet are the rhythms of the cranial/sacral pulse, thebreath, the heartbeat and the brainwaves, which average about one tenth ofa second in duration. Even shorter are the vibrations of molecules, whichspin, wiggle and shake millions of times each second. These rhythms will bediscussed in the next article in this series.

Our intellectual history shows a continuing fascination with the wayslife is tied to the rhythms of nature, including the earliest astrologicalspeculations, which far antedate the modern science of astronomy. Recentscientific explorations have replaced many early superstitions withaccurate and repeatable observations and measurements. This exploration hashad a pulse of its own, as ideas of one generation give way to new truths,based on new data.

In terms of healing, important rhythms have been discovered by medicalresearchers who are employing magnetic pulses for ‘jump starting’the repair of a wide spectrum of tissues and for treating diseases. While avariety of signals are being tested, medical interest has especiallyfocused on pulsing magnetic fields of low energy and extremely lowfrequency (ELF). (The ELF range is arbitrarily defined as frequencies below100 Hz, Miller 1986.) Similar frequencies emanate from the hands ofpractitioners of therapeutic touch and related methods. Moreover, thefields emitted by practitioners are not steady in frequency, but‘sweep’ or ‘scan’ through the range of frequencies thatmedical researchers are finding effective in facilitating repair of varioussoft and hard tissues. This is a recent and profoundly excitingcorrelation. Let us take a closer look.

Frequency windows of specificity

The Table lists some of the frequencies being tested in medical researchlaboratories and the types of tissues they affect. These are sometimescalled ‘frequency windows of specificity’. References to theoriginal reports are given in the review article by Sisken & Walker (1995).In addition, various frequencies are being tested for their effects onspecific diseases. Some of these studies can be found in various UnitedStates Patents (e.g. Sandyk 1995, Liboff et al 1993). Figure 1 shows asignal recorded by Dr John Zimmerman from the hand of a practitioner oftherapeutic touch (Zimmerman 1985, 1990). The signal frequency was notsteady, but varied from 0.3 to 30 Hz, with most of the activity in therange of 7­8 Hz. Figure 1 also shows the portions of the ‘sweep’that correspond to some of the clinical results in the Table.

Defining ‘healing energy’

There is an obvious correlation between biomagnetic emanations from thehands of therapists and the ‘frequency windows of specificity’found by biomedical researchers. While such correlations are exciting, theydo not prove anything. More investigation is needed. Research begins withtestable hypotheses that can be verified or refuted. We therefore presentan hypothesis that is also a definition of ‘healing energy’,whether it is produced by a medical device or projected from the humanhand:

‘Healing energy’, whether produced by a medical device orprojected from the human body, is energy of a particular frequency or setof frequencies that stimulates the repair of one or more tissues.

Other frequencies are involved

Medical experimentation is not confined to the ELF region of the energyspectrum. Popular devices such as the Diapulse machine emit 27 MHz (27million pulses per second) and have been studied extensively. Clinicaltrials of the effects of the Diapulse on injuries have shown

reduced swelling, acceleration of wound healing, stimulation of nerveregeneration, reduced pain and faster functional recovery. References tothis literature are given in the review by Sisken & Walker (1995). Therecording shown in Figure 1 shows only the ELF portion of the spectrumemitted from the hands of the therapeutic touch healer. Other frequenciesand other forms of energy are undoubtedly present. These frequencies can beexplained, in part, by the presence of the coherent Fröhlich oscillationsmentioned in Part 1B of this series. For every frequency produced by thebody, there are usually harmonics and subharmonics (i.e. signals that areexact multiples or fractions of the ‘fundamental’ frequency). Thepossible involvement of infrared radiations was mentioned in Part 2B. Thereis evidence that infrared radiations from the hands of QiGong practitionerscan increase cell growth, DNA and protein synthesis, and cell respiration.There is also evidence that living systems emit microwaves (Enander &Larson 1977) and light (Rattemeyer et al 1981, Popp et al 1992). As anexample, the heart produces a variety of types and frequencies of energythat propagate through the circulatory system to every cell in the body.The fastest signal is an electromagnetic pulse (recorded with theelectrocardiogram and the magnetocardiogram), followed by the heart sounds,a wave of pressure, and then a temperature change (infrared radiation).Russek & Schwartz (1996) refer to this as a dynamical energy system, anddescribe its potential for communicating information throughout thebody.

Mechanisms

Medical researchers have stated that energy field therapies areeffective because they project ‘information’ into tissues. Thistriggers a cascade of activities, from the cell membrane to the nucleus andon to the gene level, where specific changes take place (see Bassett 1995).The interpretation of these findings is that particular repair processesare triggered by the information contained in signals of specificfrequencies.

While this is an interesting hypothesis, it leaves unanswered thequestion of why repair is not activated naturally. Why should it benecessary to trigger healing with an external signal? The followingdescribes some additional considerations.

The living matrix is one medium through which the ‘cascade ofactivities’ takes place. Complete health corresponds to totalinterconnection through this matrix and its associated layers of water.

Suppose accumulated physical and/or emotional trauma impairs continuity.The application of ‘healing energy’, whether from a medicaldevice or from the hands of an energy therapist, would then open thenetwork to the flow of energy and information. Once the whole network isfunctioning, natural biological communications could flow freely throughthe entire system, from the extracellular matrix, across the cell membrane,through the cytoskeleton, to the nucleus and on to the gene level, and inthe opposite direction as well (Oschman 1993, Oschman & Oschman 1994). Inother words, activation of specific processes goes hand in hand withopening of the channels for the flow of energy and information.

A leading medical researcher has confirmed what alternativepractitioners observe frequently: application of therapeutic energy fields‘can convert a stalled healing process into active repair, even inpatients unhealed for as long as 40 years’ (Bassett 1995). Themechanism by which ‘active repair’ is initiated probably involvesboth activation of specific cellular activities and the opening of thechannels or circuitry for the natural biological communications requiredfor initiating and coordinating injury repair.

The free flow of messages through tissues is essential for preventionand for simply ‘feeling well’. An example of experimentalevidence for preventive effects was given in Part 2B. Animals treated withmagnetic fields prior to nerve injury experienced the same acceleration ofnerve growth as animals treated after injury.

While the focus in this discussion is on the healing of wounds,energetic bodywork can be of profound significance to the organism even ifno specific problem is present. A healthy individual will be both happierand less likely to have an injury or disease. If problems do arise, theywill recover more rapidly. Likewise, athletic, artistic and intellectualperformance

is enhanced when all of the body’s communication channels areopen and balanced. This point is well understood in many complementarypractices, in which regular maintenance treatments or ‘tune-ups’ are given. These treatments are not for specific ailments, butserve to reduce the future incidence of medical problems, to enhanceperformance of all kinds of activities, and to generally facilitate anindividual’s progress in their personal evolution or achievement oftheir individual ‘destiny’.

One mechanism of prevention comes from study of some of the effects ofacupuncture: mild stimulation of tissues (as by insertion of an acupunctureneedle, acupressure, Shiatsu, structural integration, massage, etc.) cansimulate an injury without actually injuring the tissue. By simulating aninjury, the mild stimulus activates the cascade of repair processes throughthe living matrix.

Mild stimulation of key points on a healthy individual is a sort of‘test run’ or ‘tune-up’ of the repair channels (Oschman& Oschman 1994). Along with the healing of injuries and prevention is therole energy therapies can have in releasing or resolving long repressed‘somatic memories’ associated with trauma and/or abuse. This willbe examined in more detail in Part B.

If the ideas presented so far are valid, there are a number of obviousimplications. First, on a practical level, manufacturers of medical devicesmight find it worthwhile to test the effects of stimulators that scanthrough a range of frequencies, rather than produce a single frequency. Itwould obviously be worthwhile to simply record the natural emissions fromthe hands of a therapist, and project the recorded signals into injuredtissues.

Some research along this line has been done. A device has been developedthat projects signals comparable to those produced by a QiGong practitioner(Niu et al 1992, Walker 1994). Interestingly, this device produces an ELFacoustic signal. Literature on this device and on other effects of QiGongcan be accessed through a database (QiGong Institute 1995).

Evolutionary biology leads to an additional interpretation. The evidencepresented so far suggests that an ability of organisms to project andrespond to ‘healing energy’, as defined above, has evolved as anatural design feature of living systems. Our ancestors lived in a worldfraught with hazards, but had no hospitals or clinics to help them mendwounds of the flesh. A natural ability of individuals to facilitate injuryrepair in each other had obvious survival value in the earliestcommunities. Evolution by natural selection took care of the rest.

Biological rhythms and wound healing

The next mechanistic questions concern the sources of the oscillatingfields emitted by the hands of various energy therapists, and the reasonthe signals scan or sweep through a range of frequencies. Research has

led to detailed and rather remarkable answers to these questions. Thefocus is on biological rhythms and the ways they are regulated.

Injury repair involves a wide spectrum of biological rhythms associatedwith the replacement of various tissue elements. How can these processes becoordinated? The problem can be stated this way: Wound healing is aremarkable and intricate process, involving the integrated and cooperativeactivities of a variety of systems. Each wound is different, and thebody’s response must be precisely appropriate if structure andfunction are to be fully restored. Dynamic interactions take place betweenlocal and systemic processes. A wide range of physiological activities areactivated, and all must be down-regulated when repair is complete. Somerepair processes persist for weeks or even longer after an injury.

Until recently, the medical approach has been almost exclusivelymolecular. Researchers have looked for, and found, a variety of chemicalsthat influence the repair of tissues. The clotting of blood involves acascade of reactions involving many different substances. Fibroblast growthfactors stimulate division of the cells that lay down collagen, a majorstructural protein used in healing wounds. Hence healing can be promoted byadding natural growth factors, or genes for those growth factors, directlyto a site of injury (e.g. Vogt et al 1994). It is easy to see how moleculescan regulate the rates of cellular processes by activating or inactivatingparticular metabolic pathways. However, there is something missing from thepicture. How can the ebbs and flows of regulatory substances provide a‘blueprint’ for the elaborate architecture of cells and tissuesand organs?

The ‘blueprint’

Harold Saxon Burr was convinced that energy fields provide the‘blueprint’ for living systems (Part 1A). Molecular biology canaccount for the manufacture of the parts, in appropriate quantities, butthe forces exerted by living fields bring those parts together inmeaningful ways to produce living structure and function. The last entry inthe Table supports Burr’s hypothesis. Growth factors (molecules)stimulate the growth of nerves, but magnetic pulsations at 25 and 50 Hzsynergize or enhance the effect. This point of view was expressed over acentury ago by one of the fathers of modern physiology, Claude Bernard(1839): ‘The genes create structures, but the genes do not controlthem; the vital force does not create structures, the vital force directsthem.’

In the words of Strohman (1993), the genes are important but not on top­ just on tap! Genes are undoubtedly involved at every step ofdevelopment,

and influence all physiological processes, but this does not mean thatgenes are entirely responsible for establishing order and function at everylevel.

Modern evidence comes from a wide range of studies on the effects ofenergy fields on development and regeneration (e.g. Libbin et al 1979,Borgens et al 1981, Jaffe 1981, 1982). A simple hypothesis can account forthe beneficial effects of “healing energy” projected from thehands of one person into the body of another.

Hypothesis: a variety of electrical, electronic, magneticand other energetic phenomena take place within healthy tissue as aconsequence of the communications needed to coordinate cellular activities.The resulting energy fields are radiated from the hands of the healthyindividual. Whether caused by physical or emotional trauma, “the woundthat does not heal” is a wound that is not receiving the naturalregulatory signals needed to initiate and coordinate repair processes. Whenhealthy tissue is brought close to such a wound, essential information istransferred via the energy field, communication channels open and thehealing process is “jump-started”.

Sources of ELF signals The functioning of the heart, brain and someother organs result in oscillations in the ELF range of the electromagneticspectrum. The principal brain wave frequencies are shown in Figure 2.

Over the last half century, Robert O. Becker and others have doneimportant research on the role of brainwaves in healing. These studies havemany implications for bodywork and movement therapies.

Modern neurophysiology focuses primarily on the activity of less thanhalf of the cells in the brain (Becker 1990a, 1991). The “neurondoctrine” holds that all functions of the nervous system are theresult of activities of the neurons. Integration of brain function istherefore regarded as arising from the massive interconnectivity of theneurons. This view is incomplete because it ignores an evolutionarily moreancient informational system residing in the perineural connective tissuecells that constitute more than half of the cells in the brain. Perineuralcells encase every nerve fibre, down to their finest terminationsthroughout the body.

The perineural system is a direct current communication system reachingto every innervated tissue. The perineural system establishes a“current of injury” that controls injury repair. Historically,the injury potential was discovered before resting and action potentials ofnerves (Davson 1970).

The current of injury is generated at the site of a wound, and continuesuntil repair is complete. One function of the current is to alert the restof the body to the location and extent of an injury. The current alsoattracts the mobile skin cells, white blood cells and fibroblasts thatclose and heal the wound. Finally,

Fig. 2 Brainwaves. Dominant brainwave frequenciesrecorded with the electroencephalograph, with electrodes on the scalp. Thefrequency of brainwaves is constantly changing. Delta activity occursduring deep sleep and in certain brain disorders. Theta activity occursduring various stages of sleep in normal adults and during emotionalstresses, including disappointment and frustration. Alpha brainwaves havebeen associated with a normal and alert state of mind. Beta waves arenormally seen over the frontal portions of the brain during intense mentalactivity. Beta waves of higher frequencies, up to 50 Hz, are associatedwith intense activation of the nervous system or tension. The diagram ismodified from AC Guyton”s Textbook of Medical Biology, 8th edn, WBSaunders, Philadelphia, PA, Fig. 59-1, p. 662, with permission from thepublisher.

the injury current changes as the tissue heals, and therefore feeds backinformation on the progress of repair to surrounding tissues. Becker”sresearch demonstrated that the current of injury is not an ionic current,but a semiconductor current that is sensitive to magnetic fields (the Halleffect). Semiconduction takes place in the perineural connective tissue andsurrounding parts of the living matrix.

Other tissues in the body are ensheathed in continuous layers ofconnective tissue. The vascular system is surrounded with perivascularconnective tissue; the lymphatic system with perilymphatic connectivetissue; the muscular system with myofascia; the bones with the periosteum.Conceptually, the living matrix encompasses all of these connective tissuesystems, including the cellular and nuclear scaffolds within them. It hasbeen suggested that the current of injury is not confined to the skin, butis a general property of layers of cells, called epithelia (Oschman 1993).If this is so, a current of injury will arise in any tissue, epidermal,vascular, muscular, nervous or bone, that is injured.

Which systems are activated will depend on the depth and severity of theinjury. This perspective is leading to a detailed explanation of how thebody coordinates its responses to injuries of all kinds.

Oscillations of the brain”s direct current field, the brainwaves,are not confined to the brain. Instead, they propagate through thecirculatory system, which is a good conductor, and along the peripheralnerves, following the perineural system, which reaches into every part ofthe body that is innervated. Similarly, oscillations of the heart”selectrical activity are not confined to the heart muscle, but arepropagated through the vascular system, perivascular connective tissue andliving matrix to all parts of the body.

The measurable brain waves arise because of the rhythmic andsynchronized spread of direct current through large populations ofneurons

Entrainment

The brain’s pacemaker

Entrainment of biological rhythms ­
more controversy

Geomagnetic and geoelectric fields

‘free-run’ periods, when the brainwaves are not paced by thethalamus, allow the brain’s field to be entrained by external electricand magnetic rhythms, either natural or man-made. What is the source ofnatural electric and magnetic rhythms?

The magnetic field of the earth, called the geomagnetic field, causesthe compass needle to point toward the North Pole. However, if you lookcarefully at a compass needle, with a microscope, you will see that theneedle is rarely still ­ it dances back and forth in a variety of rhythms.Some of these rhythms are diurnal (24 hour), some are much slower, andothers are quite fast, in the ELF range. The latter are called geomagneticmicropulsations. They are caused by a unique geophysical mechanism known asthe Schumann resonance.

In the 1950s, a German atmospheric physicist, W.O. Schumann, suggestedthat the space between the surface of the earth and the ionosphere shouldact as a resonant cavity, somewhat like the chamber in a musical instrument(Schumann 1952). Pressing the keys on a wind instrument changes the size ofthe cavity and therefore changes the frequency of the standing waves withinthat cavity.

In a musical instrument, tones are generated when the musician blowsover an orifice or reed. Energy for the Schumann resonance is provided bylightning. While you may be experiencing calm weather where you are now,there are, on average, about 200 lightning strikes taking place eachsecond, scattered about the planet. To use the physics terminology,lightning pumps energy into the earth-ionosphere cavity, and causes it tovibrate or resonate at frequencies in the ELF range.

In the 1960s, Schumann’s theory was confirmed (Galejs 1972, Balser& Wagner 1960). Lightning creates electromagnetic standing waves thattravel around the globe. As electromagnetic waves, the Schumann resonancecan be detected either as electric or magnetic micropulsations.

The waves are reflected from the ionosphere, back to the earth, back tothe ionosphere, etc. (Fig. 3). This ‘skip’ phenomenon has beenwidely studied, because it is the basis for long distance radiocommunication. Radio signals of certain frequencies can travel greatdistances because they are reflected by the ionosphere.

The average frequency of the Schumann resonance is about 7­ 10 Hz. Butwhen the ionosphere gets higher, the cavity gets larger and the resonantfrequency drops. Rhythms of terrestrial and extraterrestrial origin alterthe height and other properties of the ionosphere, and thereby alter theSchumann frequency in the range of 1­40 Hz. There are times when solaractivity leads to ‘magnetic storms’ that disrupt the ionosphere, andSchumann resonances cease. Some of the factors influencing the Schumannfrequency are given in the legend for Figure 3.

To summarize, the Schumann resonance is created by terrestrialactivities, and is modified or modulated by extraterrestrial activities. Inradio terminology, the signals are frequency modulated (FM).

Fig. 3 The Schumann resonance is a unique electromagneticphenomenon created by the sum of the lightning activity around the world.Electromagnetic pulses from lightening travel around the earth, bouncingback and forth between the ionosphere and the earth’s surface. At anygiven point on the earth, the Schumann resonance shows up as electric andmagnetic micropulsations in the range of 1­40 Hz. The frequency andstrength of the signals depend on the distribution of global thunderstormactivity, local meteorological conditions and the conductivity of theearth’s surface at the point of observation. Bursts of Schumann pulsesare easier to detect in fair weather, and occur more often during the daythan at night. These terrestrial factors are, in turn, influenced by moredistant extraterrestrial factors, such as solar and lunar position, sunspots, planetary positions, etc. For details, see Pressman 1970, Dubrov1978. The diagram is modified from Bentov (1976).

Evidence for entrainment by external fields

The Schumann oscillations propagate for long distances and readilypenetrate through the walls of buildings and into the human body. Schumannfrequencies have considerable overlap with biomagnetic fields such as thoseproduced by the heart and brain, but the Schumann resonance is thousands oftimes stronger. The similarity of a train of Schumann signals and an -brainwave are shown in Figure 4.

A number of biologists have concluded that the frequency overlap ofSchumann resonances and biological fields is not accidental, but is theculmination of a close interplay between geomagnetic and biomagnetic fieldsover evolutionary time (e.g. Direnfeld 1983). Hence researchers haveexamined interactions between external fields and biological rhythms.

Organisms are capable of sensing the intensity, polarity, and directionof the geomagnetic field (Gould 1984). There is evidence that geomagneticrhythms serve as a time cue in the organization of physiological rhythms(e.g. Wever 1968, Gauguelin 1974, Cremer-Bartels et al 1984), although thiscontinues to be controversial. A variety of behavioural disturbances in thehuman population are statistically

Fig. 4 A Schumann signal and an - brainwave. Theillustration is modified from Figure 15 in Konig (1974).

related to disturbances in the earth’s electromagnetic field or toman-made interferences:

• Howard et al (1965) documented a relationship between increasedgeomagnetic activity and the rate of admission of patients to 35psychiatric facilities.
• Venkatraman (1976) and Rajaram & Mitra (1981) reported anassociation between changes in the geomagnetic field due to magnetic stormsand frequency of seizures in epileptic patients.
• Becker (1963) and Friedman et al (1963, 1965) also studied therelationships between psychiatric ward admissions and behaviour andgeophysical parameters.
• Perry et al (1981) correlated suicide locations in the WestMidlands, England, with high magnetic field strengths due to 50 Hz powerlines.

Many studies have demonstrated the probable entrainment of brain wavesby external rhythms of natural and artificial origin:

• Reiter (1953) measured reaction time, an important factor in trafficsafety. Upon entering a cubicle at a traffic exhibition, visitors wereasked to press a key. When a light came on, they were to release pressureon the key. Their reaction time, i.e. the time between ‘light on’and ‘key release’, was recorded for many thousands of visitorsover a 2-month period. At the same time, the ELF micropulsations (Schumannresonances) were monitored. The micropulsations slow when a thunderstorm isapproaching, and Reiter found that the subjects were slower to respondduring such periods. When the micropulsations speeded up, into the range ofalpha brainwave activity, reaction times were faster.
• After the traffic exhibition, Reiter took his test cubicle to theUniversity of Munich and lined the top and bottom with wire mesh connectedto an electrical generator. He introduced artificial low-level, lowfrequency signals similar to those of the earth’s field.

Under these controlled conditions, the effects of the fields on reactiontime were comparable to those obtained during the exhibition.

Moreover, subjects in the laboratory experiments repeatedly complainedabout headaches, tightness in the chest, and sweating of the palms afterseveral minutes of exposure to 3 cycle/second fields. When the headachesfaded away, there was often a feeling of fatigue. These symptoms resemblethe so-called ‘weather sensitivity’ complaints that some peoplehave before the arrival of a thunderstorm.

• Hamer (1965, 1969) pulsed subjects with low intensity artificialelectric fields from metal plates on each side of their heads. Fields of8­10 Hz speeded up reaction time, while slower oscillations of 2­3 Hzslowed down reaction times significantly. Similar results were reported byFriedman et al in 1967.

• In 1977, Beatty reported studies on the practical significance ofbrainwave entrainment for people such as air traffic controllers, who needto maintain an alert state for long periods. Subjects monitored a simulatedradar screen, watching for certain targets to appear. In agreement with thefindings of Reiter and Hamer, slower brainwaves were correlated with slowerreaction times and poorer performance in the task.
• Wever and colleagues at the Max-Plank Institute in Germany observedhundreds of subjects, over many years, who lived in two underground roomsthat were shielded from external rhythms of light, temperature, sound,pressure, etc. One room also had an electromagnetic shield around it,consisting of a mesh of steel rods and plates, that reduced the influenceof geomagnetic rhythms by 99%. The rhythms of body temperature, sleep-waking, urinary excretion and other physiological activities weremonitored. All subjects developed longer and irregular or desynchronized orchaotic physiological rhythms. Those in the magnetically shielded roomdeveloped significantly longer and more irregular physiological rhythms. Insome experiments, artificial electric and magnetic rhythms were pulsed intothe shielding. Only one field had any effect: a very weak 10 Hz electricfield. This field dramatically restored normal patterns to the biorhythmmeasurements.

Each of these studies concluded that biological rhythms can be entrainedwith natural and artificial ELF electric fields. Entrainment of brainwavescan set the overall speed of responsiveness of the nervous system tostimulation. This is called ‘reaction time’, and is an easilymeasured parameter of consciousness.

The results support Becker’s contention that the pulsing DCelectrical system (brainwaves) set the tone of the entire nervoussystem.

These studies do not mean that when a thunderstorm approaches, everyonewill get drowsy, react slowly and accidents will happen. Instead, theysuggest that there is a statistically greater chance of slower reactionsand more frequent accidents under these conditions. Geomagnetic pulsationsdo not affect everyone the same way.

However, there is evidence that geomagnetic pulsations strongly entrainbrain waves during meditation and other practices, in which one‘quiets the mind’ to allow the ‘free-run’ to bedominated by geophysical rhythms.

Mechanism of entrainment

The internal pathways involved in the body’s responses to external magnetic

rhythms are shown in Figure 5. The pineal gland is the primarymagnetoreceptor. Between 20 and 30% of pineal cells are magneticallysensitive. Exposure of animals to magnetic fields of various intensitiesalters the secretion of melatonin, the electrical properties of pinealcells, and their microscopic structure (reviewed by Sandyk 1995). Inaddition, various animal tissues contain particles of organic magnetite.

Two separate research groups have now recorded magnetically influencedimpulses in single neurons connecting magnetite-bearing tissues with thebrain (reviewed by Kobayashi & Kirschvink 1995).

The question of whether living systems are sensitive to the earth’smagnetic field has been bitterly controversial for more than a century.There are now a number of plausible and well-documented mechanisms for suchinteractions, and abundant evidence that they take place.

Moreover, Becker’s research has shown how geomagnetic entrainmentof the brainwaves can affect the entire nervous system at a very high levelof control, i.e. the perineural DC system that extends throughout the bodyand has roles in regulating injury repair.

In terms of an energetic paradigm for bodywork and movement therapies,there is no need for us to hypothesize that geomagnetic fields, modified byterrestrial and extraterrestrial events, entrain brainwaves. Scientistsfrom around the world have already done so, and continue to build solidsupporting evidence.

Part B of this article explores how these concepts may apply in thetherapeutic setting.

Fig. 5 A summary of the pathways involved inmagnetoreception, the regulation of brain waves and therapeuticemissions from the hands of therapists. Micropulsations of thegeomagnetic field, caused by the Schumann resonance, are detected by thepineal and magnetite-bearing tissues associated with the brain. Duringthe ‘free-run’ period, when the brainwaves are not beingentrained by the thalamus, the Schumann resonance can take over as thepacemaker, particularly if the individual is in a relaxed or meditativestate (Schumann signals are thousands of times stronger thanbrainwaves). The brainwaves regulate the overall tone of the nervoussystem and the state of consciousness. The electrical currents of thebrainwaves are conducted throughout the body by the perineural andvascular systems. The biomagnetic field projected from the hands can bemuch stronger than the brainwaves (Seto et al 1992) indicating that anamplification of at least 1000 times takes place somewhere in the body.Alternatively, the body may simply act as an effective antenna orchannel for the Schumann micropulsations. The projected fields scan orsweep through the frequencies medical researchers are finding useful for‘jump-starting’ injury repair in a variety of tissues (seeTable). Portions of this illustration are redrawn from Becker(1990b).

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